Special Girls in My Life: Rachel Hales

I love many people. Too many, I have been told, but love is something that you have more of to give as you give more of it, so what they say is just complete bull. I regret that I cannot give more of my time and effort to everyone I wish to. I live my life as I can and let those I can know that I do love them, or at least I try. For my wedding, it was simply impossible for me to have all the bridesmaids I wanted. The seven I ended up with were plenty. It was hard for me to settle on them because I have so many friends who truly mean a lot to me and who I felt deserved to be in the mix. But, having 20 or so bridesmaids is silly, especially when the Bridal party is already huge due to the nature of John's and my combined very large immediate family. So I settled on five of my closest friends, John's unmarried step-sister, and John's close female friend. Here I would like to give a tribute to my wonderful bridesmaids and the ladies who are, if you will, my unofficial bridesmaids, whether they know it or not.

Rachel Hales, along with Amanda Ryther, is an angel in my life.  I've never had anyone make me feel as at home as these two. Hours of storytelling on which they insisted (mostly Rachel) made them the ultimate authorities on John, as my friends. They've been there for me through almost everything John and I have gone through, and yet not in a way that intrudes on my relationship with John. I got scared of sharing my excitement about John because I didn't want to overtake the show, but with these two it just added to our friendships, and also helped add to my relationship with John. Rachel, in asking for advice on her boy problems, helped me figure out some issues I was dealing with. Rachel is my hero. Rachel is so loving and seemingly completely void of judgmental perspectives. She reaches out to absolutely everyone around her and accepts them for who they are, yet she doesn't do so blindly by giving her total trust to those who don't deserve it. She has overcome hardships in her life, and she truly knows how to smile no matter what. I can't wait to spend more time throughout my life getting to know Rachel. I know these two friendships will last.

Perambulating...Painful or Pleasurable?

A few months ago I had a dream about running. On waking up from that dream I had an overwhelming feeling that I needed to run. So I decided to run a 5K...sometime in the future, probably foreseeable.

I enjoy running, and have for as long as I remember, though I didn't recognize it until a few years ago.

However, I am not in shape. Not only that, but I highly suspect I have exercise induced asthma. Those together make running difficult.

I also spend most of my days alone. So, no one to run with.

I also live in northern Mexico. So, running areas are restricted. We live about a mile or so (meaning less) from one of the more dangerous areas in Monterrey. Our area is perfectly safe...as long as we don't go wandering too far northwest.

Along with that, it just seems weird to be running. It's not like we have a lot of joggers going down our street in the comfortable hours of the morning or evening.

With good reason: every time I spend more than 5 minutes outside, I feel like I need a cool shower. It's so humid here, especially compared to Utah.

But I've decided that:
1) If I'm going to be running a 5K ever, I need to be training for it.
2) I can't be sitting around all day every day. I'll waste away to nothing...or to far too much.
3) I really, really need to get out of the house more often.
4) It's better if I don't have a running buddy, because then I'm not tempted to talk to them the whole time instead of running. (I know this from previous experience.)
5) I can get to know my area well. There are actually some really wonderful tidbits here and there to be found.

So, I do.
And in return, I have been blessed:
1) I get the high that running gives, and I'm slowly learning to breathe again.
2) I feel slightly less of a waste of space.
3) I do more with my day.
4) My head clears up a little more.
5) I've been able to see some really pretty houses stuck in here and there.
6) I found a park! With SWINGS!!!

Forgot How to Sleeeeeeeeeep

Okay, so that's not entirely true. I still sleep relatively well...in the morning. Like, the nearly-afternoon morning, not the might-as-well-be-the-previous-day morning. And that's just my problem, I think. I have nothing to do, ever, so I have nothing to wake up for. Therefore, I sleep in. I sleep in so much and so late (thank goodness I've been able to manage not sleeping in until afternoon...more than once...or twice) that I cannot sleep when it's time to.

So here I am.

We wanted John to get enough sleep because he does have things to do, often, so he always has something to wake up for. Not only that, but he might possibly have chronic insomnia and sometimes gives in to those late night temptations to adventure away from the bed and toward the might-as-well-be-the-previous-day morning hours for brainless web searching and computer programming. Last night was one of the many -- today he went on sleep starting at 4:30am.

Hence the 9:30 bedtime. Amazingly enough we made that in actuality, not just theory and hope.

That is, John made that.
I'm still here in reality, wishing I weren't.

Special Girls in My Life: Gabrielle Arce

I'm afraid I'm horrible at finishing things. I'm a procrastinator, I will fess. I have many posts I started and never finished. So for my recompense in that, I am posting these in parts. :) 

I love many people. Too many, I have been told, but love is something that you have more of to give as you give more of it, so what they say is just complete bull. I regret that I cannot give more of my time and effort to everyone I wish to. I live my life as I can and let those I can know that I do love them, or at least I try. For my wedding, it was simply impossible for me to have all the bridesmaids I wanted. The seven I ended up with were plenty. It was hard for me to settle on them because I have so many friends who truly mean a lot to me and who I felt deserved to be in the mix. But, having 20 or so bridesmaids is silly, especially when the Bridal party is already huge due to the nature of John's and my combined very large immediate family. So I settled on five of my closest friends, John's unmarried step-sister, and John's close female friend. Here I would like to give a tribute to my wonderful bridesmaids and the ladies who were, if you will, my unofficial bridesmaids, whether they knew it or not. 

Gabby Arce is my daughter. I've been in constant worry over this girl since I moved away to college, and for a bit before then. I worry that my example wasn't good enough; I worry about her habits and the way she spends her time; I worry about her interactions with boys; I worry that she will make mistakes; I worry about not being there for her; I worry about her family; I worry that she doesn't open up enough; I worry that she doesn't know enough; I worry that she's misguided about herself; I worry that she won't get her full potential out of her life. I tell her about my worries, and she tells me not to worry, and that works for about 15 minutes, sometimes as much as an hour. She's actually rather convincing. Far too good of a liar, but even then I don't think she's lying to me about that. But why shouldn't I worry? I love her with absolutely all of my heart and I want the best for her, and sometimes I don't see the best happening.

I also worry that I'm far too much of a mother to her and I'm getting my taste of what it will be like to be a mother to a teenager. At least we have an excellent relationship, which is what's important to me, even if the rest of it worries me...

Gabby has been the best friend a girl could ask for since day one. She has always looked up to me, sometimes especially when I felt I least deserved it. She has loved me unconditionally and continuously. I don't know anyone else on earth who can love like she does -- when she chooses to love like that. I have often put other friends and other things before her through the years, but she always put me top of her list. It's not quite the same now; she's grown up a bit. But I feel as close as we ever were, even if we don't get to spend as much time together as we'd like.

Little Black Skirt

I only brought two skirts to Mexico. Silly me. I thought they would be enough...why wouldn't they be? They both work well with several different shirts I brought :)
Oh, except for the fact that we try to go to the temple weekly.
And I only do wash once every other week.
And I'm used to not wearing a skirt more than once a month, maybe twice.
Oh well, they almost do it...but not quite.
My black skirt at home died just before we left, so I needed a new black skirt anyway...why not buy one here?
Then for Stake Choir we're told that we need a black skirt when we sing in Stake Conference.
Hm :)
My parents take me shopping every week.
But there's a reason I haven't done clothes shopping with my mother in years...
The skirt I bought is very cute :)
"A little too short"
It goes to my knees...
:)
Well, I'm happy, anyway.

John and Brin in Love Online!

So I had been posting here updates on our life together, but I shall stop now. This is my blog for my thoughts. Yes, I'm selfish. :)
John created a blog for us when we got engaged so that we could post pictures and other junk about the wedding. Never got around to it. I finally got him to make me in charge of it, so now I'm getting all of our mutual life onto that blog :) So, for our lovely life, go to:

John and Brin in Love

Tada!

Silly Blogger, Why Don't You Listen to Me?

So, if anyone happens to actually be looking at my blog, I must apologize. It's a mess, and rather unreadable. I don't get why everyone else has captured how to make their blogs look cool, yet with all my playing around I just can't get it how I want :( You'd think with all the computer geeks in my life I'd have caught on magically like everyone else. In many ways I believe I have, but Blogger Design has gone past my reach, sadly. Hopefully sometime soon it can be pretty...


Also, I have decided to create a new form of blogging. New to me, anyway.
I shall post short blogs!
That way, I can say whatever I want whenever I want and I don't have to be sad that I never write because I don't have the time/motivation to :) I always have tidbits of nonsense floating through my brain, so why not post it?
That's what this is for, anyhow. Hence, the name :)